failure – Worlding

Work hard, play by the rules, and success surely will follow. This well-known promise has kept generations of students obediently studying and fretting over grades. But conventional knowledge hides a downside. This meritocratic parable advances individual will as democracy’s great social leveler, with talent and effort overriding bias or disadvantage. In the already-achieved equality of the U.S., anyone with enough drive can rise to society’s highest tier. Colleges have enthusiastically adopted this philosophy and present themselves as impartial judges of ability and determination. They use GPA’s as moral scorecards, standardized tests as scales of human worth, and class rankings predictors of future success. This merit machine functions so effectively that few question what is being measured or how the process began.

Only now are colleges and universities starting to see the problem. Students meeting every academic benchmark increasingly find achievements unreal and lacking practical benefit. Many feel scammed by promises that effort pays off, only to hit structural barriers from the start. The premise of fair and equal opportunity works like a shell game, held in place by invisible rules and roadblocks institutions pretend aren’t there. And while bad for nearly every student, the effects have been catastrophic in the highly charged post-DEI atmosphere of reverse discrimination, “racial exhaustion,” and the rollback of civil rights advances on nearly front.^[i]

These contradictions now undermine the foundations of higher ed. While students may arrive on campus with a genuine desire to learn, the atmosphere around them quickly shifts from a common pursuit of knowledge into a zero sum game of individual achievement. The psychological effects of this are documented in a growing body of research showing spiking levels of anxiety, depression, and disengagement among students who otherwise should be thriving. Meanwhile, first-gen students, working learners, and those historically minoritized are overlooked by a system designed (and increasingly politicized) to support others with social and economic capital. The dichotomy is stark and relentless. Just as schools have developed metrics to quantify student outcomes, many conceal and often inadvertently intensify the inequities they claim to alleviate.

Many of higher education’s conflicting values have to do with competition, as the promise of opportunity often collides with the reality of failure. This dilemma has driven a shift in learner attitudes, with many young people viewing the college experience through a lens focused on grades, rankings, and future earnings potential. The ramifications of this shift extend far beyond individual campuses, resonating throughout society and shaping the fabric of our collective future. The intensification of competition in higher education, viewed by some as the great equalizer, has become a powerful engine of stratification. Such competition, often unacknowledged in institutional rhetoric, serves to magnify existing disparities, creating a system where success becomes increasingly elusive for those facing challenges and disproportionately attainable for those with abundant resources and support. ^[i]

Consider First Gen learners, navigating a labyrinth of academic expectations and cultural norms sometimes with little familial guidance. For these learners, the playing field may not be level. While some of their peers might seamlessly transition into campus life, buoyed by generations of accumulated social capital, First Gen students can encounter unfamiliar customs and unspoken rules. Even though present throughout academia, these dynamics get worse at elite institutions.^[ii]

The tragic reality is that many learners fail without fully comprehending the forces arrayed against them. They may have earned their place through merit, their admission apparent proof of their potential, yet find themselves struggling against invisible currents. These are not isolated cases of individual shortcomings but rather symptoms of a system ill-equipped to support the diverse needs of a changing student body. Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s work in Academically Adrift underscores learning losses occurring among students, suggesting a broad failure to engage and educate learners effectively.^[iii] Their research raises alarming questions about the true value of a college education in its current form and the epistemic damage that may be occurring for learners and the broader society.

Tag: failure

Learning to Fail: Higher Education’s Broken Ladder

Dismantling the Academic Hunger Games